1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to evaluation systems. In particular, it relates to an asynchronous art jurying system which allows jurors to independently evaluate artworks from different locations, at different points in time, and at different speeds. It provides artists with the ability to enter applications online and store one or more of their portfolios electronically with the ability to independently update each of their portfolios.
2. Background
A common event in the art world is the art show where numerous artists of one or more disciplines come together for public displays of their work. One competitive aspect of these shows has been the evaluation of the artworks and the awarding of recognition to artists whose works have been deemed the best, or one of the best, of the art works in their discipline at the show.
In a juried art show, a set of jurors is selected based on their knowledge and expertise in one or more fields of art. These jurors evaluate the artworks firsthand and make a judgment as to the relative merits of an individual item of artwork. The results of their judgments are accumulated with scores for each artist or item of artwork. The total scores provided by the jurors are counted manually to determine the ranking of the various artists for the given show. Unfortunately, a manual tabulation results in substantial time delays to compile the scores. Further, a manual tabulation also increased the possibility of human error in the scoring process. It would be desirable to have a system which would eliminate errors injected by manual tabulation systems, and further eliminate the substantial time delays created by the prior art manual tabulation method.
The larger and more elaborate an art show is, the more unwieldy and inconvenient the process of directly evaluating the individual artworks becomes. The prior art attempted to address this problem by developing a system of jurying which allowed the jurors to convene at a predetermined location to evaluate artworks without requiring the jurors to physically examine the individual works of art firsthand. In particular, jurors would assemble as an audience and view a slide show which presents a collection of images for each artist along with a presentation describing the artwork and the artist.
This process, while improving over the previous method of evaluation, has several disadvantages. In particular, this jurying method required that all of the jurors be present at the same location, and at the same time, for viewing the slide show. Not only does this method inconvenience the jurors who do participate, but it also creates the situation where the jury pool may not be as good as it could be. This is because a highly knowledgeable juror may have other commitments that would prevent attendance at the viewing. Due to the inconvenience of having to be present at a specific time and place, many highly sought after jurors may not be available. It would be desirable to have a system which allows jurors to independently evaluate artworks without having to be in the presence of the other jurors. Likewise, it would also be desirable to have an art jurying system which would allow jurors to evaluate particular works of art at different points in time. This would free prospective jurors from scheduling conflicts that would otherwise prevent their participation.
Another significant problem associated with prior art jurying systems is that the optimal amount of time to evaluate a particular work of art varies from juror to juror. The prior art slide shows present the artwork to all the jurors at the same time, which results in some jurors having too much time to evaluate an artwork and other jurors not having enough time. On occasion, jurors may raise questions that would require a slide to be redisplayed. This will further assist jurors who do not desire to see a slide redisplayed. It would be desirable to have a method of allowing each juror to take whatever amount of time that juror felt was necessary to properly evaluate a work of art, without delaying or hurrying the other jurors, and to free each juror from having to review and item of artwork unless they specifically request it.
Another undesirable aspect of current art jurying systems is that there is a substantial effort required of artists to participate in a juried art show. An artist must go through an elaborate manual process to enter an art show. First, the artist must prepare a substantial physical portfolio depicting the artist's work. The physical portfolio must then be submitted along with the application prior to the art show. Preparation of an art portfolio typically involves substantial cost because of the photography, packaging, and shipping charges. In addition, there is also the danger of loss in transit, or damage to the portfolio in shipping. Another problem associated with the filing of art portfolios is that portfolios may vary from one show to another. As a result, an artist may have to construct a new portfolio for every art show that is entered. In addition to the initial portfolio submission, when artists determine that they need to update their portfolio for given art show, they must go through the same process. Artists are further inconvenienced because they must go through this process every time they enter a juried art show. Of course, this requires that the artist continuously create portfolios at substantial cost and inconvenience. It would be desirable to have a system in which artists could more easily construct or modify portfolios and submit them to a juried art competition.
Another inconvenience to artists is that, in addition to submission of the portfolio, the application process is also a manual process in which the artist has the risk of loss or delay and the inability to make any changes to the application. It would be desirable to have a system which provides artists with the ability to rapidly and conveniently enter applications and relate those applications to a particular portfolio.